Page 101 of The Broken Heart Playlist
CHAPTER THIRTY
“If you want to mess with my sister, I’m all for it,” I reply without hesitation. “What do you have in mind?”
“Tess set us up for a terrible date,” Gideon says. “What if we turn the tables on her and pretend, just for tonight, the date was so incredible we couldn’t help falling for one another?”
His proposal stirs a fluttering of...something in my stomach. Hundreds of tiny butterflies all going crazy in there. It feels a lot like excitement, but I must be reading it wrong. Nerves is the more likely explanation.
“Just for tonight?” I clarify.
“Just for tonight.” His eyes are shadowed with some unfathomable emotion.
I’m silent, turning Gideon’s idea over in my head, curiosity and intrigue weaving through me.
“How will we pretend?” Simply asking the question causes my heart to start pounding.
“The most obvious way is to act as if we can’t keep our hands off each other.”
I gulp in a breath. “I see. That is the most obvious way.” I clear my throat and feel compelled to clarify, “Of course, we’re only acting.”
“Of course.”
“This will really mess with Tess.” That alone holds immense appeal to me.
“I agree.”
I bite my bottom lip. Some small, insignificant piece of me wonders why I’m not more resistant to the idea of the two of us acting like we can’t keep our hands off one another. That piece of me, however, is buried under all the other parts tingling with anticipation.
“I don’t know if she’ll buy it,” I argue. “My sister can be eerily perceptive at times.”
“Why don’t we play the scenario out?” Gideon suggests casually. “Let’s see if we can make it plausible enough so Tess will fall for it.”
This seems logical. I’m a staunch fan of logic. The thrill lighting up my nerve endings doesn’t feel logical, but that’s neither here nor there. “All right,” I agree, “let’s play it out.”
“Will Tess be waiting up for you?”
“Oh, yes. Without a doubt.”
His lips twitch. “Okay, so we pull up to your house,” he begins, unrolling the possible sequence of events.
“Tess will be watching from the window, pressed up against the glass,” I continue. “She wouldn’t want to take the chance she’ll miss out on anything.”
“We’ll have to exit the car so she can see us clearly.”
“Agreed.”
“There will have to be lots of smiling and laughing,” he warns me.
“I’m capable of both,” I maintain, a little defensively.
“There will have to be affection,” he adds.
“Elaborate, please.”
“You’ll have to touch me. And I’ll have to touch you.”
My breath quickens. I swallow. “I’ll need more details.”
“I’ll have to hold your hand.”
